Coke ovens are conventionally equipped with one or more ascension pipes to convey the volatile combustion products released during the coking process into collection manifolds for ultimate discharge into gas treatment equipment. The upper ends of ascension pipes are provided at their nexus with the associated collection manifold with a flow-reversing elbow, termed the "gooseneck", which contains an inspection opening closed by a hinged cover. Carbon, coal tar and the like that are entrained in the flowing gases have a tendency to deposit out into heavy and hard accumulations on the interior surface of the gooseneck thereby requiring frequent cleaning in order to prevent undue restriction of the gas flow to the manifold.
To remove these deposits by manual methods is arduous, time-consuming and dangerous. Accordingly, several forms of mechanical cleaning apparatus have been devised to relieve the workman of this task. Such apparatus are characteristically mounted on the coke over larry car employed to charge the ovens in each battery with coal. It employs a power-operated cleaning mechanism which must be manually or otherwise manipulated to guide the operating end of the mechanism through the inspection opening in the elbow and, thereafter, along the interior of the elbow to remove the deposits by the cutting and/or grinding action of the mechanism.
Operations performed with apparatus that must be manually guided or manipulated remain both arduous and timeconsuming. Others performed by apparatus that are mechanically operated, such as for example, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,480,514, 3,886,694, 4,013,518 and 4,107,001, while being less arduous to the workman, are still not totally dispositive of the problem due to the fact that these devices employ complex mechanism for manipulating the cleaning tool which is, of course, expensive. Moreover, because the apparatus is caused to operate in a coal- and debris-laden environment, it is subject to frequent breakdown and repair caused by the accumulation of coal and/or other debris on its operating parts or, alternatively, to an assiduous maintenance program, either of which requires the apparatus to be removed from service frequently.
It is to the amelioration of such problems, therefore, that the present invention is directed.